News Archive

Definitely scarf and glove weather today

Tuesday, 12 December 2017

"One kind word can warm three winter months."

Japanese Proverb.

Topapinion

It’s a very cold morning, but thankfully not quite as cold as the forecasters had suggested. It is minus two or three degrees at present and it seems to have got colder as the light has come up. The heathmen have been out in force since 5 o’clock, salting and gritting the horse walks, plus making sure all the polytracks are rotavated well so we can all get out and canter. It is on days like this we are very lucky to be in Newmarket with the Jockey Club team doing a great job. We have one non-runner once again but two good canters close to the yard has been the exercise, and all has gone well. We will be having two or three runners from tomorrow onwards.

Ness of Brodgar

There is a great piece today in the Racing Post by Alastair Down on Peter Walwyn. As usual Alastair gets it exactly right and if you had never met Peter, you would get the feeling of what he was really like from this very well written piece. There are some great characters in the racing industry, but sadly they are all dying out and in our politically correct world, a lot of the humour and eccentricity has been muted. The workers of today certainly won’t get the ammunition for stories that we all had.

Garrison Law

It was interesting to read the bloodstock column in the Racing Post today and actually read how the other half live. Sending mares to Galileo, Dubawi, Sea The Stars, Fastnet Rock is what everybody would love to do, but in the real world and the middle range of breeders, these stallions are all out of our budget and you have to try and cut your cloth accordingly. Both the racing and breeding sections of our industry are beginning to get very top heavy. I just hope the BHA, the TBA and the ROA understand that they must nurture and encourage the people that love the sport and those that want to enter for the first time, are not put off by the enormous prices banded about by the agents and bloodstock journalists. We need to encourage new people to become involved, but the costs, if they continue to escalate, will be prohibitive.